To those of a more shall I say rounded, political persuasion, I appreciate that what goes on in Wales may sometimes appear to be delightfully farcical, if not plain dotty and believe me, the vast majority of Welsh folk would probably agree with you.

Apparently, the story goes, Carmarthenshire county council’s marketing and tourism department (remember, that Carmarthenshire is a hot-bed of Plaid Cymru nationalism, it swung the “Yes” vote to devolution by a margin of .6% in a miserable turnout of 35.4% back in the 1997 referendum) had commissioned a video clip to help Welsh accommodation providers pull in English customers.

A young boy was employed to do the sales pitch, there was just one problem – no-one could fight their way through his worthy Welsh accent! It was concluded by the powers that be– and after some market research in Sheffield, I’m not kidding – that the target market in England would have one hell of a job understanding what the young fellow was going on about and like I say, he wasn’t even speaking in Welsh!

It gets better.

A spokeswoman for the council said, “the voiceover was changed as the young boy had lost his two front teeth just prior to filming, which made him more difficult to understand.”

Naturally, the Welsh speaking army of home rulers (Plaid Cymru) had to stick their oars in, although at least on this occasion they didn’t try and insist on the video being in Welsh and to hell with English tourists. Their reaction to the news?

“Local accents should be treasured and they play an important part in our identities. People should learn to listen to different accents in order to help us fully celebrate our diversity”

Well now, Plaid. Different accents? In other words north Walians can’t understand south Walians and vice versa, and this is when they are speaking Welsh, never mind English!

Blogroll

I am the author of four novels to date: Ragged Cliffs, Inheritance Lost and An Equal Judge make up the Treharne Saga, and my latest novel, The Bent Brief, tells the story of a lawyer who accidentally kills his wife when he finds her in bed with another woman.
My upcoming novels, The Silver Songsters and All Gas No Oil are to be published over the next 18 months.
Follow the link to my website at the top of this page to read the first chapters of all 6 novels.

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.